FAR-LeaF fellow Dr Ebenezer Amankwaa is attending the ASLP fellowship meeting at Future Africa.
This workshop changed me as a person and my science: first, let us be creative; let’s defer judgment. Let’s work with love instead of always with criticism. It taught me about communicating democratically.
FAR-LeaF fellow Dr Ebenezer Amankwaa has been awarded the prestigious African Science Leadership Programme (ASLP) fellowship and has attended the initial five-day, intensive on-site programme in Pretoria in early December 2023. The ASLP is an initiative of the University of Pretoria in partnership with the Global Young Academy, funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation. It serves early- to mid-career researchers in basic and applied science, engineering, social sciences, arts, and the humanities.
The programme aims to grow mid-career academics in Africa in thought leadership, team development, engagement, and collaboration to enable them to solve the complex issues facing Africa and the global community. Following the first training, fellows will apply their skills to a focus area or project relevant to their context.
Please share with us some of the ASLP|2023 Fellowship highlights.
Key highlights were the diversity of fellows: out of over a thousand applications, only 24 of us were selected, which brings the intrinsic satisfaction that my science is being recognised – that was an aha-moment for me and inspired me to do more. There were people from all disciplines of science, so I got to work with a diverse range of scientists – this took me out of my comfort zone and led me to come to the table with ingenuity. As a geographer, it reminded me of the ‘unity in diversity’ principle. This workshop changed me as a person and my science: first, let us be creative; let’s defer judgment. Let’s work with love instead of always with criticism. It taught me about communicating democratically.
What is the importance of this leadership program for African researchers?
The ASLP model is unique: the process is organic, the activities self-driven and thought-provoking, and the outcomes tangible and homegrown, designed by yourself. We were not just talked down to: this is a bottom-up leadership approach. We need more such models in Africa, where you impart knowledge, find leaders' natural capacities, and help them apply it to themselves.
But it is important to remember that as much as we need good leaders, we need good followers, too. If followers are responsive and active, they push leaders to become more transparent, accountable, and responsible in whatever capacity they find themselves in. The ASLP workshop boils down to you unpacking the core of yourself, not just following the same normative narrative of science; it provokes you and triggers creativity. It helps you distinguish ‘who you are’ from ‘what you do’.
How does the ASLP program benefit your research?
It is going to benefit my research in several ways. The ASLP has made me realise that, as researchers, we are trained to find and identify gaps and provide criticisms by default. Still, we were taught first to find plusses, positives, and potentials in our work and constructively overcome concerns. To use the phrase HOW MIGHT WE instead of just challenging an issue. “How might we”- sentences improve and transform situations as they help generate ideas to address complex problems rather than lamenting over challenges.
This change in mindset and attitude will benefit my research, my work as a lecturer, and my life. Acknowledging potential in a person’s work allows you to focus on the better part of your work. Then, you become constructive and not critical; you do not attack the work but see the positives and provide analytical ideas and options to overcome concerns and challenges. This democratises learning: we can co-learn from schoolchildren, generate ideas, and provide outlets to make their voices heard. I am still in the processing phase after the workshop, and as I return home, I am convinced that the lessons and inspiration will continue to abide with me, and distance will trigger my thoughts and renew my research. I appreciated the workshop; I loved every moment and activity we engaged in.
Will programs like this halt the African Brain Drain and support researchers committed to Africa?
The program supports a commitment to Africa. After meeting the other fellows, I have a renewed sense of responsibility and shared purpose. I have family on a diversified continent, even if we are of different nationalities, genders, and disciplines. I may not be able to travel to their countries, but we are connected and committed to seeing the Africa we want. This program promotes homegrown scientists who will challenge the Western narrative of Africa: we will contest and deconstruct the single story about Africa to write our own stories the pan-African way.
The big question is how to reclaim the past to overcome the future and understand the present. We need to create channels and outlets from where we will tell the world who we are and what we do and let people know that numerous opportunities abound amidst the challenges we are bedevilled with. We are rewriting the African story anchored in science and creativity. This will enable us to own the science and run with it. We were taught the benefit of communicating in simple, easy-to-understand ways, de-jargonising science, and using indigenous terminology that traditional leaders and local stakeholders can understand when disseminating. The community link must be part of the process to co-design the research, co-produce knowledge and promote ownership of solutions and interventions even when the project has ended.
How do you intend to use what you learned to improve your home institution – how will you pay it forward?
That is the million-dollar question, and it got me thinking. Change will not happen overnight. One needs to keep being receptive, accommodating, and lovingly correcting, deferring judgment to bring out the best in people, yet push them a little bit to bring out their best. The question is how to create this culture in my institution. People want to control their spaces, but dominant normative motions always persist. I will have to be accommodative and manage and navigate among colleagues and seniors at the university to appreciate this thought leadership model - not just to smash and cut but to be creative and diverge where we generate many ideas and converge where we consolidate those ideas into themes and initiatives.
I want to apply this model in lectures and the field, letting my students, field workers, and collaborators feel they also have a voice and that their voices matter. Having big people around you can make people silent. We must create an equal space supporting a creative problem-solving process whereby we collectively ideate, expand, and execute ideas and plans. This will make people confident about their ideas, create an opportunity for them to find their ideas, and give them the chance to express themselves and make them feel their ideas can contribute to solutions and initiatives. I hope we can institutionalise the ASLP principles and use them in our national development towards Agenda 2063: the Africa we want.
Dr Ebenezer Amankwaa, in conversation with Heidi Sonnekus
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